Experiment 8

Lab Activity

Pre-Lab Activity
Read the Pre-reading materials, the laboratory activity and the post-lab
before coming to the Laboratory. Solve the following problems and submit
your solution to your instructor.
Problems
1. A 10F capacitor has a voltage drop of 16V between its terminals.
How much charge does it store? How much energy does it store?
2. A ceramic (disc shaped) capacitor has a diameter of 12mm and a
capacitance of 0.01F. Find the capacitor’s plate separation. What
is the (approximate) break down voltage? Suggest a safe working
voltage range for this capacitor.
3. A capacitor is printed with the following information: 151J. What is
the rage of its capacitance?
4. A 1nF capacitor is used in a circuit and has vC(t) = 10cos(500t) Volts.
Determine the capacitor current iC(t).
5. Find the equivalent capacitance for the following network of
capacitors.

6. Consider the circuit in Figure 12. Assume C = 0.1F and R = 100 k.
What is the value of ? What should be the frequency of the square
wave source be in order to clearly display the charge/discharge
cycles of the capacitor?
7. When measuring the time constant of a circuit from the
exponential voltage signal y(t) = Ae-t/ using a scope, it is more
convenient to measure the time t1/2 at which the signal amplitude
is A/2. Show that the time constant can be computed as
 t1 / 2
  1.44t1 / 2
ln( 2)

8. Assume VS = 5V for Problem 6. Use Multisim (and its virtual scope)

to solve for and display the capacitor voltage. Employ the scope’s
cursors to measure the time constant.
9. Consider the voltage integrator circuit in Figure 13. Assume R =
100k, C = 0.1F and the op-amp saturation voltage is 14V. Let vin
= Acos(t). What is the upper limit on A for the integrator to
operate as a linear circuit?
10. Consider the circuit in Figure 13 with RC = 0.01s and zero initial
capacitor energy. Assume the input voltage is given by the signal

Use Equation (8) to solve for vo(t). Sketch vo(t).

Laboratory Activity
Required components:
One 5.6k resistor (±5%, ½ W)
One 10k resistor (±5%, ½ W)
One 100k resistor (±5%, ½ W)
One 0.01F ceramic disk capacitors (±20%, 100V)
Three 0.1F ceramic disk capacitors (±20%, 100V)
One 0.1F multilayer (conformal coated) ceramic capacitors (±10%, 100V)
LM741 op-amp
Scotch tape

Note:
- All circuits in this experiment (and in all future experiments) should be
constructed on the protoboard.
- When making current measurements, set the ammeter to display the
reading in mA. Record your measurement with two significant digits
to the right of the decimal point (employ rounding).
- When making voltage measurements, set the voltmeter to display the
reading in Volts. Record your measurement with two significant digits
to the right of the decimal point (employ rounding).
- When measuring resistance and capacitance, set the multimeter to
record the displayed reading accurate to two significant digits to the
right of the decimal point.

1. Obtain the above resistors from your lab instructor and measure
and record their actual resistance. Also, obtain a 0.1F multilayer
ceramic capacitor from your instructor and use the multimeter to
measure its capacitance. Write down the codes that are printed on
this capacitor. Now, hold the capacitor firmly between your thumb
and index fingers (so as to heat it up) for 30 seconds and then
measure its capacitance.
2. Obtain three 0.1F ceramic disk capacitors from your lab instructor.
Write down the codes that are printed on this type of capacitor.
Tag the capacitors with labels C1, C2, and C3, respectively. You may
use a small piece of scotch tape for the label. Measure and record
the capacitance of each capacitor. Now, hold capacitor C1 firmly
between your thumb and index fingers (so as to heat it up) for 30
seconds and then measure and record its capacitance.
3. Construct the following network of capacitors (employ the three
ceramic disk capacitors) and use the multimeter to measure its
equivalent capacitance Ceq.

4. Build the series RC circuit shown in Figure 12. Use the disk capacitor
labeled C1 and the 100k resistor.
5. Use the measured values of C1 and R to compute the time constant
.
6. Set the function generator to generate the square voltage signal in
Figure 11. Let VS = 10V and set the frequency to 1/(10. Us the
scope to verify the amplitude and frequency of the square signal.
Note: You are going to need to use the offset feature of the function
generator to generate the positive square signal.
7. Use the scope (apply autoscale) to display the capacitor voltage.
Save the display as an image file.
8. Adjust the scope’s horizontal and vertical gain so as to display the
largest possible (stable) single capacitor discharge cycle. Save the
display into an image file.
9. Employ the scope’s cursors to measure the time constant, . Here,
 is the time it takes the capacitor to discharge from 10V to 10/e 
3.68V. Alternatively, you may use the method of Problem 7.
10. Repeat Steps 5-9 using the 10k resistor.
11. Replace the 10k resistor by the 100k resistor. Change the
frequency of the square wave to 1/(2). Press the autoscale key on
the scope. Save the display as an image file. Use the scope to
determine the average, minimum and maximum values of the
capacitor voltage.
12. Measure and record the values of the 5.6k resistor and the
0.01F disc capacitor. Build the op-amp integrator circuit shown
below. Let the input be a (zero-offset) square wave with 6V peak-
to-peak and 1kHz frequency. Use the scope to verify the amplitude
of the input signal (you may need to calibrate the probe if the
square wave looks distorted). Display the input and the output
 signal on the scope (apply averaging if the signals look noisy). Save
the display as an image file.

13. Slowly increase the peak-to-peak value (Vpp) of the square wave by
0.1V increments until the integrator output is about to saturate.
Stop and record Vpp.
14. Now, keep the same settings as in Step 13. Press the sine wave key
on the function generator. Save the display as an image file. Repeat
for the following input signals: triangular and ramp.
15. Sort all components and give them back to your instructor.

Post-Lab Activity
Write a technical report that discusses your observations and includes
analysis and justifications of all steps in this activity. Tabulate and/or plot
experimental data whenever possible. More specifically, your report should
address the following points:

Note:
- Use the actual (measured) resistor and capacitor values in all
theoretical calculations and in Multisim simulations.
- When you are asked to “compare” measured values to theoretical
values, always compute the error in percent.
 The multilayer ceramic capacitor that you have measured in
Step 1 has the code “104K”. Is the measured value of this
capacitor consistent with its tolerance rating?
 Compute the error between the measured capacitance of C1, C2,
and C3 and their 0.1F nominal value. Based on such errors try
to predict the tolerance of those ceramic disk capacitors.
 Compute the change in capacitance (in percent) for the 0.1F
disc and multilayer capacitors due to the increase in
temperature (refer to Steps 1 and 2). What happens to the
capacitance as temperature increases? Which is the more stable
capacitor?
 Compare the measured value of Ceq in Step 3 to the theoretical
value.
 Repeat Steps 4-9 using Multisim’s transient response analysis
feature. Compare the experimental results to the simulation
results.
 Write the analytical expression for the capacitor voltage for the
circuit that you measured in Steps 4-9.
 Use the measured  in Step 9 and the measured value of the
100k resistor in order to estimate the capacitance of C1.
Compare this value to the measured value of C1 that you
obtained in Step 2.
 Compare the voltage signals in Step 7 and Step 11. Why is the
peak voltage of the capacitor less than the peak of the supply
voltage, at higher frequencies?
 Use Multisim to simulate the integrator circuit in Step 12.
Compare your simulation results to those obtained in Step 12,
and to the theoretical result obtained using Equation (8).
 Assuming that the input signal is a (zero-offset) square wave
with peak-to-peak voltage Vpp and frequency f (in Hz), it can be
shown that the output of the voltage integrator (shown in
Figure 13) will saturate if

V pp
 v sat
8 fRC
 With the ±15V bias, the op-amp saturation voltage (|vsat|) is
approximately 14V. Compare the experimental value of Vpp that
you obtained in Step 13 to the theoretical value (employing the
measured R and C values).
 Verify that each of the output signals that you have obtained in
Step 14 is the integral of its associated input signal.